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Qreen Cucumber Pickles

Pickles made from small cucumbers preserved in vinegar, salt, pepper, and pickling spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Qreen Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Wash and wipe the cucumbers carefully, then place them in glass jars.

  2. Soak cucumbers in a strong brine made from rock salt for 24 hours.

Make the vinegar mixtures

  1. Combine 1 quart of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of pepper in a pot. Scald the mixture.

  2. Mix 1 gallon of cold strong cider vinegar with ½ pound of mixed pickling spices in a separate bowl.

Pack and seal

  1. Pour the hot vinegar over the cucumbers and seal the jars quickly.

  2. Add the cucumbers gathered the previous day to the vinegar.

  3. Place new cucumbers into the brine until the jar is full.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Cucumber + cidertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together572 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Small cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickles, becoming crisp and tangy as they cure in the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickles their sharp flavour.
Rock salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them in the brine.
Mixed pickling spices
Add aroma and flavour to the vinegar as it steeps around the cucumbers.

The step that matters

Pour the hot vinegar over the cucumbers and seal the jars quickly. Sealing quickly while the vinegar is hot keeps heat in the jar and limits contamination, which helps the pickles keep safely. Cooling or leaving jars open lets spoilage microbes in.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, cider):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, cider. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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